インターネット時代における中国主流メディアの影響力について

「女漢子」をめぐる意味闘争を中心に

抄録

With the spread of the Internet and the development of citizen journalism, women are no longer “victims” who are unable to speak out for themselves. Because of this, the word “nuhanzi” has become popular in Chinese cyberspace that positively affirms the non-feminine type of woman who had been hitherto criticized. A subculture surrounding the “nuhanzi” has emerged, shocking the dominant culture. The result of this is that the mainstream media has begun using the word “nuhanzi” in its reporting. Based on this point, a “struggle for signification” has emerged between the novel view of gender represented by the “nuhanzi” and the dominant view bound to the gender order in China, which has existed for a long time. However, as a result of the fact that reports in the mainstream media surrounding the “nuhanzi” gradually turned negative, online “activity” surrounding the term dwindled, the “struggle for signification” against the reports of mainstream media could not continue, and in many cases, the debate ceased.

Based on the above facts, this study focuses on the “reproduction” of the dominant culture in the “struggle for signification” and the reasons behind excluding the new view of gender epitomized by the “nuhanzi” from the dominant culture. At the same time, we argue that in today’s information society, the existing mainstream media outlets still have a substantial influence on the reproduction of the dominant culture.